Combining Atlan, Snowflake, and Sigma to Democratize Entry to Effectively-governed Knowledge
At a Look
- North, a number one funds resolution supplier processing over $100 billion in annual transactions, aimed to enhance information discovery and governance atop their Snowflake- and Sigma-powered fashionable information stack
- Adopting Atlan as their energetic metadata platform, North has since achieved end-to-end visibility of 225,000 information belongings, securing delicate information, and rising adoption of self-service analytics
- In lower than a 12 months, their workforce is projecting $1.4mm in annual effectivity good points and a 200% progress in Sigma adoption whereas realizing a 700% enhance in tagged Snowflake belongings which has contributed to mitigating tens of millions of {dollars} in threat
For over 30 years, North has established itself as a number one funds resolution supplier, now processing over $100 billion in transactions yearly. With a various portfolio of over 20 manufacturers and subsidiaries, they help a broad vary of cost wants, supporting brick-and-mortar and on-line shops via cost gateways, cell options, and extra. Dedicated to serving industries that span eating places to authorities entities, North goals to be the best end-to-end funds supplier to do enterprise with.
With an unlimited information property comprising 225,000 belongings, totaling 41 terabytes on Snowflake, the accountability of managing and governing North’s information belongs to Daniel Dowdy, Vice President of Knowledge Analytics & Governance, serving for 13 years on the firm. Becoming a member of Atlan at Snowflake Summit 2024, Daniel shared his workforce’s journey, constructing and governing a contemporary information stack that helps each inner information shoppers and their flagship merchandise.
What do 20 subsidiaries and types, and 100,000+ retailers, imply for our workforce? It means we’ve got a whole lot of information. We use that information to help a few of our hottest merchandise.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
North’s flagship choices, Payanywhere and Funds Hub, equip retailers with something from {hardware} and software program, to safe on-line portals, simplifying the complexities of funds for retailers.
Funds Hub, a complete funds and operations platform, serves as a command middle for all the pieces from transaction monitoring and reporting to stock administration and fraud safety. To ship crucial, transaction-level reporting to their prospects, North depends on Snowflake.
“We make the most of Snowflake for each of those on the backend to offer close to real-time reporting and transaction-level reporting to our prospects,” Daniel shared. “With out Snowflake, this simply wouldn’t be doable.”
Earlier than Snowflake, Knowledge Silos
Earlier than Snowflake, North struggled with unchecked and unclear information. Easy duties like pulling uncooked information or producing experiences may take days and even weeks, hindered by ETL bottlenecks and information silos scattered throughout a number of servers and databases, or Excel recordsdata circulated throughout the group.
As soon as a file goes out, that information is already stale. To not point out that after that file leaves you, customers can then modify it and make their very own supply of reality. So, you’re scuffling with a number of sources of the reality.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
The shortage of a single supply of reality difficult efforts to drive belief in North’s information, and with out clear lineage and governance, controlling that information as soon as it left their arms proved troublesome.
After Snowflake + Sigma, Correct, Actual-time Knowledge
In 2019, North adopted Snowflake as their enterprise information lake, considerably bettering their information science, analytics, and reporting capabilities. By shifting from outdated batch processing to real-time CDC options, their workforce traded cumbersome ETL workflows and embraced the effectivity of recent ELT processes.
“We went from a ‘Knowledge Desert,’ the place retrieving info took days, to an oasis the place information was accessible in actual time, and we may question it in seconds,” mentioned Daniel.
Whereas Snowflake represented a major leap ahead within the availability and reliability of information, Daniel’s workforce have been nonetheless accountable for fielding easy requests for information entry. To cut back this workload, and to make information much more accessible to a rising variety of shoppers, their workforce launched Sigma, a enterprise intelligence instrument that empowers customers to independently entry, analyze, and visualize information, providing essential info in a self-service method.
With its acquainted, Excel-like interface, enterprise customers shortly embraced Sigma, leading to a skyrocketing adoption charge, with annual person progress now exceeding 200%.
Starting with 10 customers in 2019, we now have over 350 customers in Sigma, with an annual progress charge of greater than 200% year-over-year. Now, Sigma is our self-service analytics platform, and it’s taken a whole lot of burden off our information workforce.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
North has since engineered a contemporary information stack, establishing sturdy pipelines that seamlessly ingest and replicate information from various sources like Oracle, MySQL, Salesforce, and S3. This wealth of information is then channeled into highly effective instruments reminiscent of Qlik, Snowpipe, and Kafka, all converging inside Snowflake.
As the amount and number of information grew, so did the demand for entry, shifting the problem from mere information accessibility to the extra advanced points of information governance and discovery.
“What turned the issue was how one can discover the info, and how one can govern it effectively,” Daniel shared. “Atlan turned the central level addressing all of those issues.”
Unlocking Snowflake and Sigma with Atlan
Connecting to over 225,000 information belongings inside Snowflake and Sigma took simply hours with Atlan, driving unprecedented visibility on a big scale.
“After partnering with Atlan, it took most likely a few hours earlier than we have been built-in with Snowflake and Sigma, connecting to over 225,000 belongings. We’re so pleased with the outcomes,” Daniel shared.
This near-instant connection reworked information discovery at North, as soon as a chaotic expertise of leaping via a number of silos, abruptly making it easy to navigate and perceive their information property.
Atlan began getting us this quick worth via information discovery. The way in which I preserve excited about it was the early days of the web. You had entry to this huge quantity of data, however it was actually onerous to search out. Then, serps made it simple to run a search and discover related content material. For us, Atlan turned Google for Knowledge.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
Transferring past easy information discovery, Daniel’s workforce launched information glossaries, definitions, and complete phrases, enabling deeper dives into information, and using lineage to grasp upstream and downstream dependencies with ease.
With this helpful context unlocked, their subsequent step was to ship it on to enterprise customers, who primarily devour information throughout the Sigma, with out switching to different instruments.
“That’s the place Atlan’s Chrome Extension turned a game-changer,” Daniel shared.
Atlan’s Chrome Extension reworked information consumption inside Sigma. With context about their information belongings—dashboard descriptions, information definitions, tags, lineage, notifications, and upstream high quality alerts—now accessible instantly in Sigma, customers not needed to soar between instruments to perform their duties.
Out there in a sidebar, Atlan’s Chrome Extension made this info immediately accessible, with out coaching or change administration.
“The initiative required no coaching,” Daniel defined. “As a result of it’s a sidebar and intuitively reveals this info, we’d simply add it, then customers have been mechanically up and working, bettering their effectivity, and instantly seeing the profit.”
Challenge Decision for Engineers and Customers, Alike
With context about their information belongings made accessible in Sigma, Daniel and his workforce started work to enhance the method of troubleshooting and speaking points associated to those belongings. Upon receiving a ticket, North’s engineering workforce as soon as spent important time looking via Sigma to establish the belongings referenced within the request. With no direct hyperlink between tickets and these belongings, decision would usually be delayed, and work can be duplicated.
“It was actually inefficient,” Daniel shared. “Generally even the identical engineers can be engaged on the identical mission, they usually didn’t even realize it as a result of a number of tickets have been submitted by a number of folks.”
By integrating the Atlan Chrome Extension with Jira and Slack, North’s information shoppers may increase points instantly of their instrument of alternative, with a hyperlink to particular belongings included mechanically, permitting Knowledge Engineers to grasp when and the place points occurred.
For information shoppers in Sigma, this integration supplied a complete historical past of all Jira tickets and Slack conversations referring to particular information belongings, and for engineers, a method of stopping duplicate tickets or a number of engineers engaged on the identical difficulty, and time financial savings by higher understanding comparable, previous points.
Eliminating duplicate work, or eliminating your engineers engaged on the identical mission with out figuring out about it? These effectivity good points are enormous, and the financial savings add up actually shortly.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
Introducing Snowflake Dynamic Knowledge Masking
As a funds resolution supplier, North handles huge quantities of delicate monetary information. Whereas enhancements in information discovery and enrichment are essential, Daniel’s workforce realized the worth of those enhancements can be restricted to a small variety of trusted customers with out sturdy information governance and documentation securing these belongings.
To safe delicate information and implement stringent entry insurance policies, North’s information workforce selected to make the most of Dynamic Knowledge Masking with Snowflake, providing complete column-level masking for delicate information, and policy-based management for customers.
So as to make the most of Dynamic Knowledge Masking, Daniel and his workforce started the method of figuring out particular information belongings that these insurance policies would apply to. Given the size and complexity of their information panorama, they acknowledged {that a} granular, asset-by-asset strategy can be not solely time-consuming, however doubtlessly error-prone. Trying to find a strategy to establish and safe these belongings programmatically, Daniel turned to Atlan.
“How do you discover and tag hundreds of belongings? You don’t Google it, you Atlan it. It’s actually easy,” Daniel defined.
Governing Hundreds of Belongings, on the Click on of a Button
Somewhat than painstakingly finding these belongings, then tagging them one-by-one, their workforce utilized Atlan Playbooks, rules-based bulk automations that might establish hundreds of belongings primarily based on chosen standards, then mechanically apply actions, reminiscent of including chosen tags and insurance policies.
By the point I added a filter, Atlan scanned our 225,000 belongings and virtually instantly discovered 45 matches. As I modified the filters so as to add new ones, it consistently up to date to point out me what number of belongings meet that standards. Hours of guide analysis and testing, earlier than Atlan, was transformed into a pair seconds.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
Rapidly figuring out hundreds of belongings to better-secure, Daniel’s workforce used Playbooks to construct workflows that may mechanically apply the appropriate tag to the appropriate asset, then propagate that tag upstream, on the click on of a button. Then, with Atlan’s Two-way Tag Sync, these tags would function the inspiration for Dynamic Knowledge Masking at North, mechanically making use of masking insurance policies primarily based on how and from whom information was queried.
By combining Atlan Playbooks, Two-way Tag Sync, and Automated Lineage with Snowflake Dynamic Knowledge Masking, North efficiently ruled hundreds of information belongings in report time with a programmatic strategy, avoiding the painstaking work of figuring out, tagging, and recording insurance policies one-by-one throughout a 225,000-asset panorama.
With out Atlan tracing upstream and downstream, serving to us perceive potential publicity and implement insurance policies, this course of would have been difficult and really guide. However with Atlan, you cannot solely hint information lineage and arrange the complexity, however you possibly can see reputation and utilization metrics that assist prioritize the place efforts are wanted essentially the most, or the place the most important influence may very well be made.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
By this programmatic strategy, Daniel’s workforce affected a 700% enhance in tagged belongings, considerably bettering their safety and compliance, and paving the way in which for a major enhance within the variety of their colleagues trusted to make use of information.
“We’ve used Atlan to spice up the velocity and accuracy of our asset tagging by greater than 700% since implementation,” Daniel shared. “With the flexibility to find information quicker, apply tags, and reverse sync that information again into Snowflake, we added greater than 2,000 governance belongings in beneath a 12 months. That’s simply the tip of the iceberg.”
Tens of millions in Worth, in Months
In lower than one 12 months of being outfitted with Atlan, Daniel and his workforce reworked the way in which North makes use of and governs its information, unlocking the potential for tens of millions in worth via effectivity good points, value reductions, and enhanced threat mitigation.
By thoughtfully converging essential context about Snowflake and Sigma right into a user-friendly information base in Atlan, North’s technical and enterprise customers are projecting financial savings of $1.4 million per 12 months in effort via accelerated information discovery and diminished effort understanding lineage.
“That’s $1.4 million of duplicate work, guide and tedious analysis. That’s time we are able to now spend on altering issues, versus making an attempt to navigate information prefer it’s the web in 1997,” Daniel shared.
And with built-in insights in Atlan, close to–immediately figuring out pointless spend of their Snowflake atmosphere, Daniel and his workforce estimate an annual value financial savings of greater than $20,000 by deprecating greater than 10,000 idle belongings and inefficient queries.
“That financial savings was mainly handed to us on a silver platter with no additional work,” Daniel remarked.
Past value financial savings and effectivity good points, and existential to an organization that processes delicate monetary information, lies important threat mitigation. By rising their tagged belongings by 700%, shortly and in bulk, North’s governance and safety improved virtually in a single day, to the tune of tens of millions of {dollars} in diminished threat.
We’ve been in a position to scale back our threat and publicity by tens of millions and tens of millions of {dollars}.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
A 200% Improve in Self-service Analytics, with Room to Develop
Whereas these enhancements are spectacular, whether or not in information discovery, with context about their information belongings supporting a 200% year-over-year enhance in self-service analytics adoption, or in Knowledge Governance, driving tens of millions in threat mitigation, it’s the mixture of those packages that’s set to remodel the way in which North makes use of information.
By affecting a leap ahead in the way in which that North manages entry management and ensures safety throughout a large information property, the way in which Daniel’s workforce defines a trusted person of information is evolving and increasing considerably.
“Knowledge Governance gave us the arrogance to soundly and securely share extra information in Sigma,” Daniel defined.Now assured that essentially the most delicate information is safe, appropriately tagged, and ruled by the appropriate entry coverage, North can confidently supply information and self-service analytics capabilities to extra enterprise customers than ever earlier than, enhancing the already important worth they’ve yielded from combining Atlan, Snowflake, and Sigma.
We have been in a state of near-paralysis making an attempt to manually decide who ought to see what. Using a mixture of improved governance insurance policies, tags, and dynamic information masking, we have been ready to make use of information with confidence. As a result of enhanced person expertise, mixed with the elevated information availability, we anticipate to proceed or exceed our self-service atmosphere progress charges.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
Mere years after adopting Snowflake as the inspiration of their Fashionable Knowledge Stack, and fewer than a 12 months after adopting Atlan, North’s information property has reworked from, as Daniel described, a “Knowledge Desert” into an “Oasis.”
“Because the information by no means leaves our umbrella, there’s no extra flat recordsdata which are shared,” Daniel defined. “There’s no extra a number of variations of the reality, and our information has a degree of confidence, leading to quicker and extra knowledgeable choices.”
Regardless of the unimaginable accomplishments of North’s information workforce, constructing self-service analytics and Knowledge Governance capabilities from scratch in report time, Daniel believes there’s nonetheless a lot extra to perform.
Within the months and years to return, their information workforce is raring to make use of Atlan AI to simplify advanced queries into pure language, and speed up the enrichment of their information belongings. And by supporting a rising variety of Knowledge Stewards to independently share and doc information, a extra knowledgeable and empowered group of enterprise customers is rising.
Reflecting on their journey with Atlan, Daniel emphasised that past the appropriate know-how, workforce, and technique lies an important factor: The proper partnership.
One of the crucial necessary issues about Atlan has been the folks. They’re information people who have labored within the trade, perceive what you’re going via, and perceive what you’re speaking about from the second you begin the dialog.”
Daniel Dowdy, Vice President, Knowledge Analytics & Governance
Photograph by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash
